Highlights from the EnergyQuest Australian LNG Monthly report.
Australia may be a lucky country, but it is in a global competition
The three largest LNG buyers in the world have a great interest in what happens with Australian energy policy. Based on our February import data, Australia supplied 45% of Japanese imports, 28% of China’s imports and 23% of Korean imports. These three LNG buyers accounted for 74.4% of Australia’s March LNG export volumes.
The revenue from these three largest LNG buyers is 286% of Australia’s total gold exports, 466% of wheat and 655% of beef exports. The LNG revenue from these three buyers covers Australia’s annual export revenue of Barley in 18 days. So when these buyers express concerns about policy changes, we should listen carefully.
- Japan and China in an exceptional example of North Asian solidarity are worried about Australia’s ‘quiet quitting’ of the LNG export market
- Minister King announced no curbs on LNG exports for next quarter
- Coal industry struggles with the government determining a ‘fair price’
- Liddell, a major coal-fired power generator on the east coast is due to close this month, just before winter.
Some of the statistical highlights of this report are:
- Australian LNG projects shipped 7.16 million tonnes in March (104 cargoes), up on 6.69 Mt (97 cargoes) in February.
- EnergyQuest estimates that Australian LNG export revenue in March was $7.2 billion, higher than the $6.9 billion in February and up by 28% on March 2022.
- There was a big increase in deliveries to China but a fall in deliveries to Japan. In March, 30 cargoes were delivered to China after delivering 18 in February and 22 in March 2022. Thirty-five deliveries were made to Japan in March, after 43 were delivered in February and 38 delivered in March 2022.
- Australia delivered 13 cargoes to Korea in March, five less than the 18 in February and lower on the deliveries of last year when 23 cargoes were delivered.
- There were three spot cargoes reported by Platts for shipping from Australian projects in March, none from the east coast and three from the west coast (3% of total shipments). There were three spot cargoes in February.
- Queensland imported gas from the other states in March, with net flows in an easterly direction. Net gas flows to Queensland from other states were 1.1 PJ in March.
- CSG production from fields operated by the LNG producers was 107.3 PJ in March, higher than 103.7 PJ in February and 2.7 PJ above exports including fuel gas
- Gas production from Moomba and offshore Victoria was up by 4.0 PJ including from storage compared with February, and down by 3.2 PJ compared to a year ago.
Information about the EnergyQuest Australian LNG Monthly is available by clicking here.